Breezeway Art

We have a homeless man who occasionally stays in the breezeway near our apartment on the downtown square.  His name is "J.L."  He doesn't speak to anyone who passes him, and never asks for anything.  I don't know where he stays when he isn't in the breezeway, but I occasionally see him around town pushing this basket.  Over the weekend, and then again today, his basket has been in the breezeway with no sign of JL.  I assume he is walking around somewhere and feels comfortable leaving his stuff here.  It's been a rainy day, so it may be a way to keep the basket dry.  I don't blame him, you can tell by looking at it that he has worked hard to make it an oddly beautiful piece of art.  The flowers on the side appear to be real, and they change with the seasons.  The flags sticking up are a constant, and, along with some of the clothes he wears, make Matt and I think that he may be a veteran. 

He's a skinny man, though his height and the bamboo stick he walks with give him an intimidating presence.  The only time I've heard him speak was at 3:00am one morning when he was having a psychotic episode, screaming at no one about disappointment and rejection.  It was heartbreaking.  Matt and I talked for a long time about whether or not we should call someone.  In our town, calling someone means calling the police, who would probably have to use force to take him to the state hospital.  I believe that JL could benefit from medication management and stabilization, which is pretty much what he'd get at the state mental health hospital.  However, considering his state at that point, and considering that our town has no official mental health crisis responders, I was concerned that the police would use too much force and that someone would get hurt.  From what we could tell by peeking out the window and listening to him, it didn't seem like he was a danger to himself, and there were no other people out at that time, so we decided that we'd just watch, listen, and wait.  Eventually, he calmed himself down and walked off, basket rattling down the road.